GardenAfrica backed by BBC Radio 4 presenter Carol Klein

A BURWASH based charity that aims to help families in rural Africa grow their own food was the subject of two prime time BBC Radio 4 appeals this week.

Before rushing off to present this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, BBC Gardener’s World TV Gardeners World’s Carol Klein enthusiastically agreed to present the appeal for GardenAfrica. It was broadcast last Sunday and Thursday.

Georgina McAllister, co-founder and director of the charity said: “We began GardenAfrica in a garden shed in North London but moved to Sussex so that we could practice what we preach to ensure it worked.

“Part of my job is to develop and assess the impact of our training projects and raising funds for them. We started GardenAfrica having worked on emergency food aid programmes with other NGOs for many years.

“So it was our response, seeking an alternative, long-term approach to food aid and the damage it can do to local economies by growing local food.

“Challenges include poor soils, lack of information and reliance on expensive inputs from agribusiness.”

The drive behind GardenAfrica’s Radio 4 appeal is the need to continue training and support for the most vulnerable and poor people, enabling them to cultivate their own food rather than depending on aid.

They are helped to produce healthy food for their families without amassing debt by buying expensive pesticides, fertilisers or hybrid seed and by working with nature, not against it.

The charity sets up productive training gardens and as Carol Klein pointed out, as global food prices continue to rise so does the demand for this training.